Church and Main

In this holiday week solo episode, Dennis talks about the importance of small congregations.

Two pastors with autism talk.

In this episode, Dennis chats with a colleague, Dwight Welch. Welch is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and like Dennis is on the autism spectrum. The two pastors talk about the challenges and blessings of being a pastor on the spectrum.Books Mentioned:Disability and the Church by Lamar HardwickWe're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation by Eric GarciaOn the Spectrum: Autism, Faith, and the Gifts of Neurodiversity by Daniel Bowman Jr.website: enroutepodcast.orgTwitterFacebook PageYouTube: https://bit.ly/enrouteytLeave a Tip Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Will Lutherans become an endangered species?

When the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was created in 1988 as the result of a merger, it had 5 million on the rolls. According to a 2019 article, if projections remain the same, we might see only 16,000 in worship across the denomination.This could have been the time for a lot of hand-wringing. But that was not the intent of the article’s author, Dwight Zscheilie. Instead, it was a jumping-off point to talk about what mainline Protestant congregations are doing that is causing fewer people to attend and what can be done to turn things around. Zscheile is the Vice President of Innovation and Associate Professor of Congregational Mission and Leadership at Luther Seminary in St. Paul (which is my alma mater) and is also a priest in the Episcopal Church. If you belong to a mainline congregation hoping to make a difference in your neighborhood and are concerned for its future, you will want to listen as we talk about the article and how churches can move from an "age of association" that worked in the 20th century to a model of authenticity that works in the 21st century.Show Notes:Will the ELCA Be Gone in 30 Years?The Data is Clear – Episcopalians Are in Troublewebsite: enroutepodcast.orgTwitterFacebook PageYouTube: https://bit.ly/enrouteytLeave a Tip Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

A quick update on where the podcast is headed next.

What do Christians not understand about economics?

If you know anything about economics, it has to be the concept of scarcity. This is the gap between a limited resource and unlimited wants. Scarcity means making decisions on how to best allocate these resources efficiently so that as many people benefit as possible. That’s what scarcity means. It’s econ 101. But when I got to seminary and afterwards, I head pastors say over and over again that scarcity was bad. God is a God of abundance, they would say. Scarcity was about greed and not sharing resources with others. I never understood where pastors were getting this. I knew about this basic fact of economics, why were they having problems figuring this out? Over time I realized this sort of thinking was pretty standard throughout mainline Protestantism.Today, Micahel and I talk about economics, business and the mainline Protestant church. We also talk about how evangelicals have such a hard time understanding structural racism.Economic Fallacies Christians BelieveBe sure to rate us and leave a review. Share the podcast with others! What did you think of the podcast episode? Questions? Send an email: [email protected] .website: enroutepodcast.orgTwitterFacebook PageYouTube Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Can religious conservatives and the LGBTQ community work together? Yes.

Maybe one of the biggest debates of the early 21st century was the debate about expanding marriage rights to include same-sex couples. From the minute I got married to my husband in 2007, the fight for same-sex marriage went from theoretical personal. Between the mid-aughts and 2015, religious conservatives and LGBTQ Americans fought over this question, ending with the decision by the Supreme Court in favor of same-sex nationwide by Supreme Court in 2015. You might have thought that would end the argument, but it didn’t. The fight shifted to a battle between religious conservatives who wanted to be able to practice their faith and LGBTQ persons who wanted to express their newfound rights. The Masterpiece Cake Shop in Colorado has become the physical embodiment of the clash between religious liberty and same-sex marriage.Is there a way to bridge the gap?Rev. Marian Edmonds Allen believes there is and it’s taken place the in most unusual places. Utah. Give it a listen.Parity websiteBe sure to rate us and leave a review. Share the podcast with others! What did you think of the podcast episode? Questions? Send an email: [email protected] .website: enroutepodcast.orgTwitterFacebook PageYouTube Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe